3-Colouring Planar Graphs

Abstract

We show that every $n$-vertex planar graph is 3-colourable with monochromatic components of size $O(n^{4/9})$. The best previous bound was $O(n^{1/2})$ due to Linial, Matoušek, Sheffet and Tardos [Combin. Probab. Comput., 2008].